Epipen

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  • tilt
    tilt Posts: 214
    I'm supposed to keep them on me (shellfish allergy - not much chance of randomly going in to shock whilst on my bike though) but can never be bothered replacing them when they go out of date :oops:

    I heard a story about someone trying to administer one to their friend, but holding it the wrong way and injecting it in to her own thumb :lol:

    Both ended up in hospital (both were fine in the end).
  • BigShot
    BigShot Posts: 151
    tilt
    Dr. Pierre Drolet was the Dr I mentioned. He was taking heart medicine which somehow interfered with the epipen but apparently his pen was out of date too. Some allergy expert (Dr. Christine McCuster) was quoted as saying "Studies have shown that within a month of the date of expiry, the epinephrine loses so much of its potency as to be not much better than water."

    Seriously - get them swapped when they go out of date.


    On the wrong-way-around thing... it must be a monumentally bad design if that can happen.
  • tilt
    tilt Posts: 214
    BigShot wrote:
    tilt
    Dr. Pierre Drolet was the Dr I mentioned. He was taking heart medicine which somehow interfered with the epipen but apparently his pen was out of date too. Some allergy expert (Dr. Christine McCuster) was quoted as saying "Studies have shown that within a month of the date of expiry, the epinephrine loses so much of its potency as to be not much better than water."

    Seriously - get them swapped when they go out of date.


    On the wrong-way-around thing... it must be a monumentally bad design if that can happen.

    Or a monumentally stupid person :wink:

    And yeah, I know I should get them replaced really.
  • Anonymous
    Anonymous Posts: 79,667
    BigShot wrote:
    On the wrong-way-around thing... it must be a monumentally bad design if that can happen.
    I think people panic, and see the end (that's meant to be pressed against the patient) and think it's some kind of button to press with the thumb.
    A fairly easy, if silly mistake to make when someone's panicking.

    As for losing it's potency, this is also true (way off topic now though!) of the pseudoephidrene in vicks nosey squirt things.
  • tilt
    tilt Posts: 214
    yeehaamcgee wrote:
    As for losing it's potency, this is also true (way off topic now though!) of the pseudoephidrene in vicks nosey squirt things.

    Probably not quite the same ramifications there though :wink:
  • Anonymous
    Anonymous Posts: 79,667
    No, not the same ramifications at all, but it does stink like hell, doesn't stop your nose running, and makes you feel ill :lol:
  • trailspirit
    trailspirit Posts: 38
    The Epipens we have usually have a shelf life of 12 months ( don't know if they are all the same? ). Anti-histimine tablets seem to work for my daughter - she takes 1 or 2 about 20 minutes before racing and ( touch-wood ) we haven't had any more "episodes" meantime, but she still carries an Epipen as a precaution.
    The instructions we give when she is on running camp / training with national squads etc. is that whatever happens - if the Epipen has to be administered then it should be followed with an immeadiate call to 999 for an ambulance.
  • BigShot
    BigShot Posts: 151
    trailspirit, I believe EpiPens are effective for about 15 minutes right? Maybe better to make it that the call to 999 should go in before the epipen is even out of the bag if there's a spare pair of hands around to put the call in. The extra few minutes could be critical if it takes a while for the ambulance to arrive.

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